Palladino: Returning Ivan Nova Must Help Heal Yankees' Pitching Woes
By Ernie Palladino
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Now the Yankees get to see whether Ivan Nova can offer any assistance to a floundering pitching staff.
Joe Girardi had better hope so. What is happening now is certainly not the stuff of a division champion.
With Michael Pineda showing the benefits of skipping a June start to save September innings -- there are none -- Masahiro Tanaka struggling and CC Sabathia talking about leaving his dominance in the past and morphing himself into an Andy Pettitte-type grinder, one could easily get the idea that Nova's return from last year's Tommy John surgery Wednesday afternoon is just what the doctor ordered.
Of course, if Nova falls flat, the Yanks may need another kind of doctor, the one who has tissues and a couch in his office.
It's not that Nova is going to answer all their problems. He was never that kind of pitcher in the first place, and he certainly didn't show that quality in his minor league rehab. His last start in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre showed little promise, as he allowed five runs on seven hits in five innings. If nothing else, though, he's a different face. After what the familiar faces have done lately, Nova really couldn't do any worse.
Actually, it can't get much worse. Pineda, once so dominant, has bombed in two of his last three starts since Girardi gave him an 11-day rest after he beat Seattle June 1. The last one on Monday, against the horrifically bad Phillies, lasted just 3 1/3 innings. He was charged with eight runs and 11 hits.
One could chalk that up to an isolated glitch if not for the fact that his line -- immediately after the extended rest -- read six runs (five earned) on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings, with two walks, two strikeouts and a homer. Pineda, in fact, has given up homers in all three of his post-rest starts.
Tanaka has lost his last two starts, though he has been impressive in getting through seven innings, going 2-1 in his first three starts since his return from the DL. Still, his failure to come out for the sixth inning in Sunday's 10-hit, five-run loss to Detroit is reason for concern, as is the 19-hit total he has amassed in his last two outings.
Sabathia has allowed seven homers in his last four starts. The ersatz innings-eater hasn't seen the seventh inning in seven starts -- since his May 16 win in Kansas City -- and that includes Tuesday's six-run, eight-hit disaster over 4 2/3 innings against those same awful Phillies. The one workhorse Girardi could always count on to work deep into games to save an overtaxed bullpen is now in grave danger of becoming a six-inning pitcher, and maybe not even that.
Now there are cries in the media about trading for Phillies left-handed ace Cole Hamels -- who will face Nova Wednesday -- or Reds right-handers Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake. Regardless of the names, it all means that just about everybody outside the Yankees' locker room has lost hope of Sabathia ever regaining his old workhorse form with any regularity.
The 5.31 ERA he brought into Tuesday's start was only slightly more attractive than the 5.65 mark he left with. Worsening matters is his downwardly adjusted attitude that conforms rather than defies outside opinions that he no longer has long-term, shutdown capability.
That's not the Sabathia for whom the Yanks are paying $48 million these final two years of a monster contract.
In light of all this, the Yanks could use a pick-me-up right now. Perhaps Nova will provide that. But finding out comes at the cost of an extra rest day for the five other starters on the upcoming road trip.
Girardi, of course, sees it as a benefit, even as his biggest arms struggle to find a consistent rhythm.
If he's wrong about Nova, the upcoming, seven-game road trip to Houston and Anaheim could turn out to be a lot more interesting than it should be.
